I wanted to explore the possibility of using processing to create a dance performance. A loose computational choreography. I decided to try and achieve this by creating a choreographic loop, the dancer moves in front of the webcam and the program will take the data from the movement and use a swarm of particles to respond. The dancer continues to improvise but taking their movement cues from the swarm that the computer has created. I am interested in the change in the dancer’s movement style over the course of this performance. Will the movement move so far from what the dancer presented to begin with that we are able to say that the program is dictating the choreography? Will the dancer feel any noticeable changes in their own movement style as the performance progresses? Would an audience observing the performance be able to understand the loop and will it change their response to the performance knowing that the movement is dictated by a computational program? These are fairly big questions to explore and will no doubt require a lengthy research process in order to attempt answer them. However, I decided to use this project as an opportunity to take the first step towards being able to conduct this research.
Added into a traditional flocking algorythm is a pull to the coordinates of the movement of the dancer obtained through frame differencing.